Into it
by Gimpyslair
Summary: It was a simple task, but Inuyasha, Miroku and Sango somehow managed to complicate things. Simple, funny, little friendshipfic between the group. EDIT August 18th


**Into it**

**Disclaimer:** All the Inuyasha's characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi.  
**Note:** This story doesn't take place in a moment in particularly. There's no romance, it's just one of those rare friendship-fics.  
**Edit:** Most of the mistakes are corrected, thanks to Starzki!

"Come back here you fools! You brainless little monsters!" We could hear those words from miles away.

The hanyou, the demon-slayer and the monk were trying to escape an angry old man. He was throwing fruits at them while chasing them in Kaede's village. The villagers were looking at them rather oddly. Sango stumbled over a dog, Miroku jostled a woman holding a net of fish, and Inuyasha threw aside containers full of rice that were in the way so that their opponent would slow down. The old man seemed intent on catching them.

"Let's hide here," panted Miroku, nodding to the bushes. They all jumped into them, trying to be as silent as possible as they could. They then saw the old man continue past them, not having noticed where they were hiding. When they were assured he was far away, they yelled in pain: the bushes were full of spines.

"Great idea, bouzu! '_Let's help him, he is danger, let's hide here, he won't see us,_'" the hanyou said sarcastically.

"But he really was in danger… I mean, those youkai would have certainly killed him." Sango responded, while picking the spines from her hands.

They were not aware of the pair of eyes that were looking at them.

"We should have let him die and gone on our own way!" Inuyasha answered rather angrily, shaking his head to get rid of the brushwood sticks in his long hair.

"I don't like having a dead on my conscience," replied Miroku bitterly, sending glares at his companion.

"Hi everyone!" said a happy, cheerful, female voice.

All three of them unconsciously jumped, fearing it was the angry man. They relaxed as soon as they recognized their friend, Kagome, who had Shippo and Kirara on each of her shoulders. They sighed in unison. She was back from her time.

Sango mumbled quickly, saying something that sounded like 'Hello to you.' None of them were in a talkative mood. They were all angry with themselves or with someone else. "You should have see that, I've never seen a scene that funny!" said Kagome, giggling, not realizing the depressed look of her friends. "You know, the grumpy old man, Hitashi, was really mad and he was running all around the village looking for 'something to hit.'" Kagome said, making Shippo laugh.

"I didn't know what he meant though. Did you meet him?" asked Shippo, breathlessly.

"Not really…" growled the monk. Neither Inuyasha, Miroku nor Sango added a comment to this. They all stayed silent, looking everywhere but at Kagome and Shippo. Inuyasha was staring at his feet, Sango was tearing off grass and Miroku was looking at the fly that was buzzing around him.

Kagome continued to talk, but she began to suspect something because of the odd silence of her companions. "From what I heard, Hitashi hates children because the ones in the village don't stop stealing the fruits and the vegetables of his garden. He had been particularly irritating since his wife's death." She paused, frowning, while looking at each of them out of the corner of her eye. They were clearly hiding something from her, but they didn't seem to want to talk right now. She will have to use some subtlety. "Some say he began to get crazy and paranoid. I have never see him before today though, so I couldn't tell if he is that bad," the miko finished.

"Keh, he is undoubtedly worse" Inuyasha automatically cursed himself, while Sango and Miroku clapped their hand on their foreheads with facial expressions that could have meant 'what an idiot.'

"Ha!" Kagome laughed waving an accusing finger at the hanyou. It certainly was easy to make him confess. As for Shippo, he was puzzled, not understanding what was going on.

The young miko was waiting for an explanation. She looked to Miroku, to Sango and finally to Inuyasha. All three of them looked rather pitiful. That's when she first realized all the spines covering their faces and their clothes. Their skin was scratched, covered with dirt and she noticed that the monk's forehead was blue at one spot. "Well?" Kagome asked, proudly.

"Well…" coughed Miroku.

"Well…" moaned Sango.

"Well…" growled Inuyasha.

A long silence passed. All three of them exchanged glances, not daring to begin. Kagome began to lose patience "Don't 'well' me. Say something!" Miroku sighed in defeat. Finally someone was going to explain what had gone on.

"Alright, it all began this morning, right after you went to your time. Kaede-sama was asking us to do a little work, because she had a backache. It was simple; all we had to do was exchange one container of rice for three fruits from each kind of tree. She then told us that the exchange was at the end of the field, with someone called Hitashi. We gladly accepted…" Miroku stopped, frowned at Inuyasha and corrected himself "_Sango and I_ gladly accepted. It was a good way to show our gratitude toward her after all the problems we bring to her..." The three of them coughed at this, visibly concerned about something. "We decided to bring Inuyasha along with us."

Miroku took a pause, taking a moment for breathing, swallowing, looking at the sky and feeling the wind on his face. He was definitely taking his time, not that it bothered the demon slayer or the hanyou. Kagome was listening carefully, not letting one word escaping her ears. Shippo decided to go and play with Kirara, because all that silence made him crazy.

Sango took over the story from Miroku. "We were walking through the village, since Hitashi's field was at the opposite side of town from Kaede's hut. Houshi-sama was, as usual, fooling around with women. I was stuck with Inuyasha, who didn't stop complaining," She gave a fierce look at both of them, especially the monk. "But we finally made it to the field. It was then that each of us sensed a presence of youkai. Our suspicions were confirmed when we saw four bear demons attacking Hitashi's hut at the top of the hill."

She was about to carry on but Inuyasha mumbled, "We should have just taken the fruits and left."

Sango ignored the comment. "We dropped the container of rice and automatically ran to his hut."

"So here I come in," said the hanyou, "I released my Tessaiga, and began to kick the first demon's ass that I could reach: he was easy to kill, I didn't even have the time to say, 'Got you, sucker!'" He paused, smiling proudly at himself. "Miroku used his scrolls to take down the second bear demon, while Sango used her Hiraikotsu for the third. We were really into it…"

Inuyasha was interrupted by Miroku and Sango who nodded and said, "Indeed" at the same time. The three of them begin to look somewhat embarrassed. An uncomfortable silence followed. Kagome frowned, not really understanding what was going on.

Inuyasha finally carried on, "Yeah… really into it, because we didn't have a good fight for a long time. And, well, the battle didn't last very long, unfortunately. But, you see, there was this last bear youkai, and as I said before, because we were, well, into it…"

"Indeed" said Miroku and Sango once more.

"We forgot everything else like…"

"Our common sense," completed Miroku

"What we were doing," added Sango

"Where we were,"

"How we…"

"Then we thought we saw Naraku," interrupted Inuyasha, "We were giving that bastard all we got: Sango threw poisonous gas at the him, I used my Kaze no Kisu and while he was disintegrating by my attack, Miroku used his kazaana." Inuyasha laughed nervously. "We really were in our own world, imagining that we were in the heat of big battle against Naraku, but…"

"It was just the weak bear demon," finished Miroku "Or precisely, the weak bear demon with the power of illusion. He used his attack on us, probably to scare us. Unfortunately for him, it made us use more powerful in our attacks than we normally would use on the usual youkai." He chuckled at this.

Kagome still didn't understand. A weak demon used the power of illusion on them, so what? Not a big deal. Where was the problem? Seeing the puzzled face of her friend, Sango prolonged the story.

"When we got our senses back, we saw that the demon was obviously dead, he didn't have a chance against all our attacks. We at last saw old Hitashi running toward us. We all expected that he was going to thank us for saving his life. But we were wrong."

"The ungrateful little b…" Sango cut off Inuyasha, before he had the chance to finish his phrase.

"He was red and mad, really mad. Because you see, when we are battling, we usually fight inside a forest or in an uninhabited place, but it wasn't the case. And in addition, because we all thought it was Naraku... We managed to…"

"Destroyed his produce," concluded the monk. "Sango made his food inedible with her poisonous gas, Inuyasha ruined half of his field with the Kaze no Kisu's craters, and I sucked up two out of five fruits trees, including his garden. All of this damage because of one weak bear-demon. No matter how much Sango and I apologized, Hitashi yelled at us, telling us he never asked our help and he went on like that for five long minutes. Then, Inuyasha, as diplomatic as he is, found a way to make the old man hate us even more. He said…"

"'_You should be grateful, old bag,_'" Sango and Miroku said in unison, both imitating their dog demon companion in an exaggerated voice. Kagome rolled her eyes, not really surprised by the answer.

The only response the hanyou gave was a 'Keh.'

Kagome looked at each of the trio in face with her with big eyes. She did her best to not laugh, since they appeared rather tense.

"We thought he was going to explode. We slowly began to walk away, step by step," said Sango. "Then he did one unexpected thing, he threw first thing he came across at us: a decomposed fruit. It hit Houshi-sama and injured him a bit…"

Miroku stroked his bruised forehead, he murmuring sarcastically under his breath, "Yeah, just a bit."

"So Hitashi began to chase us all around the village with rotted fruits. It was humiliating…"

An awkward silence followed the end of the tale. They could hear Shippo's laughing in the background, as he played with the two-tailed cat. Then, one after the other, they sighed. Kagome was the first to say something.

"Let me recapitulate this: you three," she said, pointing at Miroku, Sango and Inuyasha with her index finger, "had destroyed an old man's produce with your best attacks because a bear-demon use his powers of illusion to made you think you were facing Naraku. Now, the old man is chasing you with rotten fruit."

They all nodded seriously at her.

Kagome bit her lip. 'Don't laugh Kagome, they will kill you if you do it. Don't laugh, don't laugh, don't laugh.'

"Does Kaede-sama know anything about this?" She asked, trying to think of something else. By the look of their faces, they hadn't even seemed to have thought about it. Well, Kagome couldn't really blame them, after all that had happened…

"Hum…"

"Err…"

"Well," began Sango, "with all the noise we made, followed by Hitashi's yelling, in addition to the rapidity that rumors travel between villagers, she probably knows that we screwed things up. Now that I think about it, how are we…?" She didn't have time to finish her question as she saw a fruit fly right under her nose, landing on Miroku's face, making him fall on his back. He made a weak whimper, the rest of the crew blanched.

They all had a pretty good idea of who it was. "There you are!"

Kagome looked up at Hitashi: projectile in hand, he was red, covered with sweat, giving what could have been a menacing look if he hadn't had been so small. She then chuckled, thinking about how pathetic the situation was, really. An old, small, crazy man was chasing a priest, a half-demon and a demon-slayer with rotten fruits. The three of them were accustomed to fighting horrible murderous monsters. Her giggles died off instantly with one deadly look from Inuyasha.

"Hitashi, wait." A calm, wise, voice came to their rescue. It was Kaede!

She was standing on the top of a ridge: the sun was shining on her, a little wind was rustling her miko's robes, and she was accompanied by singing birds in the background. Her eye was looking severely at each of them, one after the other, making every one feel bad about their bad behavior, even Kagome, who did nothing at all.

"It was me who sent those three at your place in order to exchange a container of my rice with three of each kind of fruit that you have. It had been awhile since I heard from them, so I walked toward your place, just to see that it had been partly destroyed."

Inuyasha, Miroku and Sango forced a smile, but ended up looking at their own feet.

"I was worried, but I heard from neighbors that you," she turned her glance to Hitashi, "have been running after them, throwing your produce at them. I even heard that you hit Inuyasha on the nose, making him bleed."

Every look turned now to the hanyou, who was practically trying to sink into the ground, humiliated that this bit of information, unknown to everyone until now, had been revealed.

Kaede carried on, "So Hitashi, I will simply ask you to excuse yourself to those young people."

"What? But frankly Kaede! Don't you see what they have done to…" While saying this, Inuyasha was smirking, glad to have her to his side. Kaede ignored this.

"I know. You don't have to remind me about the incident. I reserved a special punishment for them..." she said, looking toward the three fighters. She had a smile on the corner of her mouth.

Miroku, Inuyasha and Sango swallowed at this. They glanced worriedly at each other.

The next day, Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango and Kagome were in Hitashi's field, all leaning toward the ground. Miroku was tearing out the bad herbs, Inuyasha was digging holes and Sango was planting vegetables and fruit trees. Kagome helped them although she had nothing to do with the passing events: she just wanted to spend time with her friends, especially Inuyasha, even if it was on a hot and humid day.

"Actually, it's not that bad. Kaede-sama was kind to us," said Miroku, tearing out a bad herb.

"I agreed, it reminds me how the life will look like after we defeat Naraku," said a smiling Sango, catching a sight of a very shirtless monk while putting her hands inside the ground. Kagome nodded at her, helping her planting a nashi tree.

However, not everyone of the little group was as positive as the monk, the demon-slayer, and the miko. Inuyasha, of course, was growling to himself, not wanting to participate in the optimistic conversation.

"Stupid wench. I should have known she was going to give us a punishment…" he mumbled, digging another hole.

Then, an annoying voice resonated in each of their ears.

"Faster then that, you four. You still have to disinfect all of my trees from the poison." Hitashi yelled arrogantly. He was standing closely in front of them, with a bowl of water. "There is a chance that I'm a kind person. I brought water…" he then let it slide between his fingers, beside the monk and the hanyou, "… to the dirt!" The man turned back toward his hut, laughing at his not-even-funny joke. Sango rolled his eyes, thinking he really was a crazy man.

Inuyasha and Miroku caught each other's eyes and both grinned, an understanding passed between them. They each dig their hands into the wet ground and at the same moment and threw mud at the back of Hitashi's head.

He violently looked behind his back, not having seen that coming. He furiously headed toward his house, mumbling words about youth and immaturity.

Inuyasha and Miroku laughed hysterically at this. Kagome giggled. Sango was trying in vain to contain the smile that forming at her lips. Soon, the whole group was laughing madly at this. The whole fiasco was worth that instant of brightness they passed together.

**The end**

**Author's big notes:** It was just a one-shot about a day-off in the feudal-era. I find it pretty nice, even if there is some out-of-character, like Sango. By the way, Hitashi is just a character I made up quickly. It was the first name that came into my mind.  
I apologize for my bad English: I do my best and I particularly have hard time with the verb tense, hell I even do those mistakes in my own language!  
I didn't put a lot of Shippo, because I didn't think of something he could have done in there.  
A nashi is a Japanese peer fruit.  
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!


End file.
